Cross-posted at Winning Progressive
As the winning cartoon from this Hartford Courant cartoon contest perfectly illustrates, the economic condition that President Obama inherited when he took office. A recent CNN pollshows that the American public continues to believe that the Bush Administration’s disastrous policies are what drove our economy into the ditch. 53% of Americans identify the policies of Bush and the Republicans as the cause of our ongoing economic problems – only 33% point to President Obama and the Democrats. In short, people continue to recognize that the recession this country has suffered through is the Bush Recession.
Now, simply pointing fingers does not solve our economic problems. But looking back at the results from the Bush Administration’s approach of deregulation, budget deficits, and tax cuts for the likes of Paris Hilton is important as we approach the November elections because the Republicans are promising to promote the exact same economic policies as Bush did.
This chart from the Washington Post illustrates well the impact of the Bush Administration’s economic policies. As the chart shows, from 2000-November 2009, there was zero net job growth in the U.S. and a 4% decline in household net worth, numbers that are dismal in comparison to the economic growth that we have experienced in every other decade since the 1940s. Even before the Bush Recession began, median household income declined, and the number of uninsured and the poverty rate increased from 2000 to 2007. The financial market meltdown and housing crisis caused by the Republicans’ deregulatory zeal then made things even worse.
In the face of historically unprecedented Republican opposition, President Obama and the Democrats have worked to turn this economic performance around. For example:
* Last year’s stimulus package kept the Bush Recession from becoming the Bush Depression, and stemmed the tide of job losses. Recently, Obama proposed $50 billion in infrastructure investment and additional efforts to further promote economic recovery.
* Over Republican filibusters, President Obama and the Democrats have sought to lessen the blow of the recession by providing aid to states to prevent layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and police officers, and extending unemployment benefits.
* President Obama and the Democrats enacted financial reform legislation to help prevent future financial meltdowns, protect consumers, and avoid future Wall Street bailouts.
* President Obama and the Democrats enacted health insurance reform legislation that will extend insurance coverage to 32 million of Americans, relieve worries about losing health insurance when one is laid off from their job, and begin to rein in out of control health care costs.
Despite this progress, much work remains to be done to fix our economy. The question we are faced with in November, however, is whether we enable President Obama and the Democrats to continue their progress, or whether we hand the car keys back to the Republicans who drove our economy into a ditch. The choice is clear.
Write a letter to the editor to let people in your community know that you want President Obama and the Democrats to continue working to improve our economy, and that you oppose giving the car keys to our economy back to the Republicans.